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As writers, we all suffer writer’s block at one time or another. As people, sometimes we experience an equivalent called human wall. It affects us on all levels: work, personal, familial.

Today, after four days of a severe cold (which I rarely get), I have hit human wall. I cannot function. I cannot think. I have projects coming out of my wazoo, kids screaming and fighting in one ear, phone calls in the other. With each word typed or read, there is a child standing in my face demanding attention or requesting food, preventing me from concentrating. So what do I do?

The longer we sit in our chairs; the softer we become. The softer our bodies become; the softer our brains become.

The more processed foods we eat; the murkier our thinking becomes.

We deteriorate at a phenomenal rate…why accelerate it?

Take part in the #15minsofexercise hashtag convo or the #10Burpeesat10 and refresh yourself. REnew your mind, your body and your soul. Feel GOOD again.

Exercises needn’t be exhaustive. They needn’t be aggressive. You can do yoga, tai chi, walking, alternate walking/jogging, core exercises, pilates. You name it. You can improve your life and your love 15mins at a time.

We are what we eat and we become what we do. Do what will bring you success and eat what will fuel it.

Much love to you all! Thanks for stopping by my home on the web!

Since I love to talk too much, leave me a comment and let me know what exercise you can do in 15mins that will leave you feeling refreshed and ALIVE. ❤

HA! My infantile attempt at poetry for you:) I haven’t posted as I had hoped during this week. Turns out, this time with family is actually THAT. Zero work accomplished, but LOTS of renewing and calling into order of chaos:). Wishing you all a wonderful next few days. I will be back on Thursday, hopefully:)

If you don’t know me yet, I am tenacious. Maybe too much so, but that is another story. Anywho, I continue to stand atop my soapbox to delve a little deeper into crushing the bane of our existence and allowing ourselves to flourish.

In the last episode, I touched on how we like to use time as a REASON (see, I didn’t say “excuse”) for our drive thru visits, calls to the pizza delivery, or serving premade mess. Now, you know what is next…your wallet.

Is it cheaper??

Let’s talk about how much money you just spent at the drive to make yourself less healthy. A meal these days is anywhere between $4(the uber low quality and usually a kid’s meal) and $6 (the one hiding under the title “healthy choice” or its the supersized behemoth that comes with a bucket of transfat and enough liquid to drown a horse). Multiply it times 4 (or more if you have more than the average 2.5 kids) and you have a minimum of $16 that you spent to make yourself less healthy that will accumulate into medical bills later on. However, is it likely that you ONLY spent $16? Doubtful. You probably didn’t spend less that $20. And for that you could have made a meal and had leftovers for second or you could have had enough for two different meals. If we are talking convenience, then see how much you could have spent on veggies to take with you instead.

Now, this is taking into consideration the cheap drive thrus like the national chains that I won’t mention, but that you are already friends with. What about the high-end ones that pretend to have higher quality foods? I guarantee that your home cooked meals are still healthier than the healthiest chains. Your food is fresh. Your food has not been sitting on the shelf or in the refrigerator for weeks, full of preservatives to make them last that long. Assuming, of course, that you are shopping the perimeter of your grocery for the bulk of your items and NOT buying premade/prepackaged/frozen/canned foods. You aren’t, right?? Please say you aren’t.

Yet, let’s go back to the all important bottom line: Your wallet.

Yes, your grocery bill is going to go up, but your eat-out bill is going to go down. Shop the farmer’s and side markets for the fresh fruits and veggies of the season. Look for the sales. Be diligent. Your health and your children’s health is at stake. Your wallet is going to have to dish out dollars for meds, doctor visits, and hospital stays by staying in the drive thru line.

When we buy in-season fruits and veggies, we spend less than we would if were buying imported out of season produce. Or if you are feeling REALLY energetic, try growing your own! Talk about savings.

I said the bottom line was your wallet, but it really isn’t.

The bottom line is your health. When you ingest chemicals in the form of preservatives, additives, or pesticides, you are assimilating them into who you are. You’ve always heard that you are what you eat, right? Well, no more true statement can describe what is going on inside you when you when it comes to food…so why not make yourself and your family priority and take the steps that you need to take in order to build the best you and the best family that you can? Your bodies, brains, and babes will thank you for it.

What do you believe you spend on non-homemade food? I would love to hear your argument for/against freshly prepared meals in the comments below!

Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.Victor Kiam

Um, yeah. But that’s not me in the pic. Although, some days, I feel like her. (So glad I haven’t done that in a public bathroom.) 🙂

So many of us set our sights on a target, but when the mark is missed, we turn tail and run. Why is that?

By failing, you have just learned what didn’t work. And what does that mean? You have come one step closer to learning what DOES work. Yay! Score one for you for failing! 🙂 You didn’t think that you were doing something right in doing something wrong, did you?

Motivation to move forward after failure is what achieves goals. Whether you are writing a novel, trying to make your restaurant the best, or trying to find the best way to teach your kids, you have to plug onward when things don’t work if you want to realize your dreams. When you see what you did didn’t work, ask yourself, “Why?” If you don’t hear an answer come back to you, you are still in the land of the sane. Just kidding 🙂 (sort of). Pick a new path and tread it. If that doesn’t work, then you have successfully eliminated yet another option and are one more step closer to find the road that leads you to success. But you have to keep going.

People face challenges and setbacks everyday, but you have to ask yourself how bad do you want it? No, not that. Sheesh. I am talking about your goal. How badly do you want to make your dreams come true? Do you have the stamina to continuously fall on your face and get back up again? Because if you do, congrats…you WILL achieve your goals. You won’t be one of the ones wondering “What if….”

I challenge you today. The gauntlet has been thrown!

Your assignment is to take whatever goal it is that you are working on and write it down. Then, address the manner in which you aim to achieve your goal. Set a time frame. When that time frame has been met revisit your goal sheet and gauge your progress. Didn’t work? GREAT! (I bet you are still closer than you were.) Then, set a new plan. Life is about learning and growing. And as long as you are doing that, then rest assured that your name is not in the obits and you have another chance to move onward toward your goals.

For you Listers:

1. Write goal

2. Write plan (include time frame)

3. Revisit at time’s end and gauge progress – If necessary, celebrate and formulate new plan or celebrate because you achieved your goal!

I love hearing from you. Feel free to leave me a note in the comments regarding your goals and plans! What do you want to achieve and how are you going to do it? Are you going to quit when it doesn’t work out? (The answer should be a resounding “NO!” 🙂 )

Blogging is EASY! You sit down, hash out a few words that people really like and make them feel good and they will follow you through the mire! Right? Not.

I am “blogically challenged.” I have these killer ideas that come to me precisely when I walk away from the keyboard. Nice. Yes, I know that I am supposed to live with a notebook tethered to the back pocket of my jeans, but there are beings tied on there already. (Wait, that means that my hands ARE free!?)

A blog is a readers gateway to information and their connection to the writer. It is a baited lure. So deciding what to blog about is a crucial step for an aspiring author who hopes to one day have a best-seller. We need you to love our voices so much that when that book comes out, you rush to read it and tweet about it to your hundreds of followers on Twitter.

So this is what this is really about, isn’t it? A blog that leads to readership for it and our novels.

Kristen Lamb, author of We Are Not Alone, likens a writer’s journey to a journey through the Sahara where the French Foreign Legion placed oil drums every mile to help travellers navigate the desert wasteland. She says by taking this journey one oil drum at a time, we can reach our goals of becoming best-selling authors.

So by overcoming my blogically challenged nature, I will surpass one of the miles and miles of oil drums that lie ahead. Notice, I said “will” not “can.” But, like a good garden, a good blog takes time to cultivate. I intend to make this web one that you will be glad you are caught in. And I WILL catch you, my pretties! (Sorry, the silly monsters are taking over as it is late for typing!)

Thanks again for reading my rambling for the day!

What say you dear reader? What made you decide on the blog content that you chose? Readers without blogs, what blogs do you find yourself frequenting? Informational? Humorous? Political? Newsy? Leave your comments below. I love to hear what you have to say:)

On Friday, you will find Twitter abuzz with authors and writers who attempt to entertain us with flash fiction pieces. For those of you outside of the writing clique and are not familiar with what flash fiction is, they are tiny short stories. Regular readers of this blog know that is what I tend to post and what I love most…nothing like taking a moment and emptying your brain on to the laptop:).

As I am still toying with the angle and format of my little slice of the net, I don’t know if I can limit your torture to just one flash per week. 😀 However, it might help me focus the direction that I would like to head in rather than rambling about the place…like I am doing now. Why don’t you stop me when you see this happening? :p

Anywho, this is the gist of things…

If you are a writer of flash fiction, please leave a link to your flash fiction piece in the comments below.

If you are a reader of this blog, but are not a writer, I encourage you to email me (taniadakka at cedarshop dot net) your work and I will post it here if you don’t have a blog to which you can post yours.